Language Input in the Bilingual Classroom and Its Relationship to Second Language Achievement

Characteristics of teachers' language in the classroom as well as the use of explicit teaching behaviors were examined, and an attempt made to determine the relationship between selected characteristics of formal language input and second language achievement. The speech of three teachers from two immersion (IMM) schools and three teachers from two French schools (NS) of grade three and grade five was recorded. Two aspects of language input were examined: 1) characteristics of the language that teachers use in general communication with their second language students, and 2) explicit teaching behaviors associated with the students' second language. For the first, the frequency of occurrence of certain linguistic structures in the teachers' speech was examined and a positive relationship was found between that and the extent to which the same structures were produced correctly by the students. In the second, two categories of teaching behaviors were studied: 1) general teaching strategies consisting of questioning, repetition and modeling, and 2) teachers' reactions to errors made by students.